sortedjson

JSON.stringify with keys sorted. Supports custom ordering, replacer and space.

Some features are inspired by JSON.sortify:

• Hoping that the platform's native JSON.stringify will write the keys in the order they were added to the object, instead of re-implementing our own stringify.
• Using a backup of the original JSON.stringify so it can be overwritten with this function.

Despite taking these ideas, this library was written anew from scratch because I hope my version will be faster for default sort order with no checks for circular reference.

API

sortedJson(data[, replacer][, space])

Behaves like native JSON.stringify, just with the keys sorted in default Array.prototype.sort() order.

• Non-standard space: Negative numbers mean to use n=-space space characters for indentation but removing the 2nd and 3rd character of the result if they happen to be a newline followed by a space character. In cases where data is an array or an object, removing that newline and space will put the first item or key on the same line as the opening bracket. Default: -2
  • Does not apply if the sortOpts.stfy option is used (see below).

sortedJson(data, [replacer,] space[, sortOpts])

Like above, except if¹ you provide a number or a string as space, you may optionally provide your own sortOpts, too, which can be either a function or an options object. A shallow copy of sortOpts will be passed as the how argument to sortObj(), possibly with keyPrefix and keySuffix modified so don't rely on them. Some additional options in sortOpts are supported by sortedJson:

• stfy: a function to use instead of the original (probably native) JSON.stringify in order to encode the sorted object. If a replacer is given as well, the replacer will always be applied using the original JSON.stringify.
  • If you're going to use univeil's jsonify as stfy, you may instead use the pre-made combination safe-sortedjson.

(¹ Requires space because a function that has no space argument before it could be confused with a replacer function.)

sortedJson.preset([replacer,] space[, sortOpts])

Return a function that accepts one argument data, remembers all the other arguments listed above, calls sortedJson with data` and the above arguments, and returns the result.

sortedJson.sortObj(data[, sortOpts])

If data is an array or not an object, return it verbatim. If it is a non-array object, return a copy that has its keys sorted and all its non-array object values .sortObj()ed as well.

Usage

From test/usage.js:

var sortedJson = require('sortedjson'), pets = {
  dog: { sounds: [ 'woof' ],            colors: [ 'grey', 'white' ] },
  cat: { colors: [ 'white', 'orange' ], sounds: [ 'meow', 'purr' ]  },
  ant: { colors: [ 'red', 'black' ] },
};
console.log(sortedJson(pets));

Output: test/usage.json

Known issues

• Needs more/better tests and docs.
• Versions 0.1.x did not work around the array index priority problem described in deepsortobj.

Related projects

• deepsortobj, and the ones listed there

• JSON.sortify

• sorted-json

License

ISC